Whilst thinking of all things Rivendell and Elrond Council decisions. If they knew that Sauron was expecting the Elves to take the Ring to the sea and throw it in there as the easy option as Gandalf suggested, should they have send a decoy company of Elves that way to attract Sauron's attention away from the real mission?

Sauron wielded great power without actually possessing the Ring-
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Unmaking it would seem the only clear option. Of course any plan hinged upon Sauron’s inability to believe that anyone would have the strength to cast the Ring aside—and he was mostly correct in that belief. So while he may have fallen for a distraction, until the Ring became unmade, he would just keep doing what he was doing.

Did Sauron’s power—pale reflection that it was without himself possessing the Ring—rest on someone, anyone, possessing it? For instance, was his power greater while someone, a willing or unwilling vessel, owned the Ring, rather than it laying on a river-bed, or at the bottom of a deep crevice?

I think Sauron would have the most power if a willing participant possessed the Ring. Isildor, Bilbo, Frodo and possibly Gollum all had problems wearing the Ring, if worn too long it made them sick, especially Isildor, so they wore the Ring very little. Isildur was an unwilling participant, Frodo was an unwilling participant until he and Sam reached the the Fire of Mount Doom, and then Frodo put the Ring on and became a willing participant. He was so willing, he knew what would happen to himself, his friends and family, and all of Middle Earth, but he did not care. If it had not been for Gollum taking final possession of the Ring and getting it into the Fire, Middle Earth almost certainly would have been lost forever to the Darkness. Bilbo did not even know he was participating in something, but kept the Ring to himself and hardly wore it, and the Dark Lord had no idea where it was until Gollum ratted out Bilbo.

I think the Ring would have to be worn by a willing participant in order for Sauron to use it to force his will upon Middle Earth. If lying in a dark crevice somewhere, Sauron can still feel that it is still alive, but could not use it to force his will on Middle Earth effectively. Please, call me Ve.

I don't think that the possession of the Ring by another added anything to Sauron's raw power. It would have spread his influence indirectly, though through the corruption of the bearer. "Change is inevitable. Growth is optional." - DRWolf (after John C. Maxwell)

that his power was the same, whether the One Ring were lost or was being worn/kept by a mortal.

But how about this: what if someone who really mattered gained possession of the One, like Gandalf or Galadriel. Would Sauron's power be the same if his Ring were in the hands of a formidable opponent? My gut says he'd be weaker somehow.

Tolkien speculated that if a claimant with sufficient native strength, a Saruman or a Gandalf, possibly a Galadriel, had both obtained and succeeded in mastering the Ring, then (and only then) the effect on Sauron would be the same as if the Ring were destroyed: the mystical link to his "soul jar" would be severed and he would be diminished to eternal impotence.

Of the others only Gandalf might be expected to master him – being an emissary of the Powers and a creature of the same order, an immortal spirit taking a visible physical form. In the 'Mirror of Galadriel', 1381, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond. But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power. But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond's words at the Council. Galadriel's rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy him by force. Confrontation of Sauron alone, unaided, self to self was not contemplated. One can imagine the scene in which Gandalf, say, was placed in such a position. It would be a delicate balance. On one side the true allegiance of the Ring to Sauron; on the other superior strength because Sauron was not actually in possession, and perhaps also because he was weakened by long corruption and expenditure of will in dominating inferiors. If Gandalf proved the victor, the result would have been for Sauron the same as the destruction of the Ring; for him it would have been destroyed, taken from him for ever. But the Ring and all its works would have endured. It would have been the master in the end. Gandalf as Ring-Lord would have been far worse than Sauron. He would have remained 'righteous', but self-righteous. He would have continued to rule and order things for 'good', and the benefit of his subjects according to his wisdom (which was and would have remained great). [The draft ends here. In the margin Tolkien wrote: 'Thus while Sauron multiplied [illegible word] evil, he left "good" clearly distinguishable from it. Gandalf would have made good detestable and seem evil.']

'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'

Sauron was doing Morgoth's bidding all along, even when he thought he was acting on his own behalf. 'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'

let's not forget, even without the Ring Sauron was still going to win in a straight military context. The march to the Morannon was indeed a diversion and a suicide-bait gambit; but as Gandalf and Aragorn made clear in The Last Debate, to remain on the defensive would simply delay the inevitable Sauronian victory.

Sort of a Lord of the Rings - Wizard of Earthsea mash-up? Treachery, treachery I fear; treachery of that miserable creature.

But so it must be. Let us remember that a traitor may betray himself and do good that he does not intend.

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Mithrandir spoke to the Council, saying: ..."'It is not needed that the Ring should be found, for while it abides on earth and is not unmade, still the power that it holds will live, and Sauron will grow and have hope..."